Young Writers Society

Part two of chapter eight: https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/work/MaybeAnd...

The Fallen King

While waiting in the Keep for a meeting, Liam's friends are concerned about how lonely he seems, so he tells them about his returned Grandfather. 

***

Liam explained it all, the darkness, the Old Tongue, his grandfather. As he talked, he realized yet again how little of it he understood, but it was fun to see how stunned the two were by the absurd information. Liam hadn’t considered that they might not believe it, but it occurred to him it was a real possibility. What he was saying would have seemed insane if you hadn’t been there to hear the voice in the storm, watch Grandpa banish it, and see that glow of wit in his eyes that had been gone for so long. Even if you had seen it, it still was quite strange.

They seemed to trust him, though. They had questions, of course, and had him re-explain most of everything. About halfway through the third round of explaining, a side door flew open and interrupted them.

The chattering of voices was added to the singing choir as a group of twenty or so farmers came out of the room. They were still talking with each other and the two Keepers who followed them out.

Sitric nodded at Liam when he saw him. It was a strange nod. Sitric sometimes acknowledged his own men of the watch with the king’s salute - a fist to the chest. It was tradition, showing that both of them were subject to the king. But this was different. The salute he gave his men was a sign of gratitude for their respect and a regard for their training. The nod Liam got was not an acknowledgment of Liam as a soldier but as someone of equal respect. It was a nod that was exchanged between two equal-ranking captains.

But Liam knew his uncle wasn’t actually giving that to him. He didn’t deserve it. He saw where his eyes really fell, not Liam’s face but the dagger at his side. Sitric was not admiring Liam but the older brother who had been Liam’s father. The man who had held the blade and office of Keepership with such honor he had made them something to be respected. Sitric respected that blade, that office, and that brother’s memory, not Liam.

The moment passed, and Sitric turned from Liam and looked over at his own son. He raised an eyebrow. “Why are you wearing your armor, Cormac?”

“Keeper Liam has given me the task of aiding him in transporting supplies to the lighthouse, Sir. With your leave, Knight Captain, I would like to accept this task, which along with helping Keeper Liam, would further my training outside the wall. If I may be so bold, I would also request the right to bring back an Astrum torch, thereby addressing our lack of torches. If I left within the hour, I could return before sunset, Sir.”

Sitric raised a hand to quiet his son before he could go on. Liam looked away. He hated the way Cormac talked to his father when he was addressing him as commander and mentor. He knew he never talked to him that way when at home, but in situations like this, he would become an overly formal, groveling soldier. Sitric was a good man but no idol in need of worship. If he didn’t address him as a son like that, why did he do it as an apprentice?

The strange thing was that Liam thought Cormac loved it. He was not doing it out of fear but something else. A strange adoration or loyalty.

“I understand the request. There are risks involved in such a task. Outside the wall is dangerous, or no wall would be needed.” Sitric said, “But in the end, the wall is not made of stone but flesh and blood. If you cannot withstand the dangers of the outside, nor will the stones. You will not leave the path, you will return before sunset, and all your actions will be guided by wisdom and honor. Understood?” Sitric asked.

“Yessir,” Cormac said with a nod and a salute, fist over his heart.

“Then you have my leave,” Sitric said.

“And dad,” Gwen began, “We were also thinking that maybe I could go too, to see Matt?” She winked at Liam and Cormac. “I just thought this would be a good time to do it.”

Hugh considered this and rubbed his red beard, “I don’t know, Gwen. It isn’t a time to just be wandering outside the walls.”

“With a keeper, two torches, and one member of the watch, I should be perfectly safe. Well, as safe as one ever can be outside the wall.”

“That is true,” Hugh conceded, “But I don’t know if going to see Matt is necessary for the risk.”

“I understand, but Matt’s just all alone up there. I thought I’d visit him, make sure he and his wound are doing well, to take a bit of the load off Liam and him. I’d be sure to come back before sunset. It would mean another torch could be brought down, and I haven’t had a first-hand view of the lighthouse since I began studying the Old One. It would be an amazing chance to get my own account.”

Hugh considered this, looking thoughtful.

“I also already baked cookies to bring him,” Gwen added.

Liam tried not to laugh. With Gwen coming too, it would be a party. Suddenly, he was worried. That meant you’d have to be responsible for all of them.

“I don’t want to put any more pressure on the two boys.” Hugh began slowly. Oh no, had Liam let the worry creep into his face?

“The sun is bright today, and Cormac and Liam have they’re training, but so do I. A loremaster can’t just spend all their time in books.” She glanced at Liam and Cormac for support, who both nodded quickly.

“She won’t get in the way, Sir,” Cormac said.

“It will actually be nice to have another person to carry a torch,” Liam added.

“Well, we can’t waste those cookies,” Hugh said, breaking out in a smile. “If your mother thinks it’s wise... then I can’t stop you.”

Gwen beamed, “Thanks dad, I’ll go talk to her.” She shot off without another word.

Sitric chuckled. A sound that was not often heard while he was on duty. “Well, with that dealt with, Liam, we have a Keepers meeting to attend to,” Sitric said, “To the upper room, then?”

***

In the dome above the well was the upper room. Compared to the chapel below, it was relatively simple. Its only decoration being the single window out onto the Green and the large wooden table. Liam hated the room and how useless he felt in it, so he was glad to find the meeting short. They had already discussed and read the letter from Grandpa in the meeting the previous night, but now they had already moved on to new problems. Always a new problem.

As if to prove this point, as soon as the meeting was over, Sitric said a curt goodbye and then hurried down the stone spiral staircase to attend to another duty.

Liam had recently come to learn that was Sitric’s life. As soon as he was done with one thing, there was another to deal with, reports of danger to check, guards to organize, trials to hear, and contentions to break up.

Hugh sighed and looked over at Liam, who was watching the door as it swung close. Liam liked Hugh, but he sometimes felt uncomfortable being alone with him. Hugh always seemed to be knowing what he was thinking, and Liam didn’t always like what he was thinking.

“He never stops, does he? We two can wile away our hours with conversation and thought, but he always has another thing to do.” Hugh said. “But he does them all somehow. That’s why Sitric’s the Keeper of the Walls, I guess.”

“Isn’t Sitric the Keeper of the Walls because his dad was?” Liam responded before he could stop himself. It sounded more snappy than he had meant it.

Hugh smiled. “That’s definitely part of it. But can’t both those things be true? Can’t he be a Keeper because his father was, but also because he is the best man for the job? Sitric’s father was the Keeper of the Walls, so he will be trained to be efficient and practical from birth. He will be his father’s apprentice and be taught how to think strategically and fight well. But, it wasn’t just his father who was a Keeper, but his father’s father, and his father’s, father’s father, going back countless generations until the Old One. That responsibility cannot be kept separate from the family, so courage and nobility will run in his veins from those countless men who came before. That is why he is The Keeper of the Walls. Because of who he is, and who his parents are part of that, but not the only part.”

“My dad would have been Keeper of the Walls if he didn’t marry my mother. By blood alone, I would have been next in line for the wall.”

“But your dad did marry your mother. Your father would have made a good Keeper of the Wall, not as good as Sitric. But he didn’t. That’s the funny thing about fate. It didn’t pick your father for Keeper of the Walls. It picked your uncle.”

Hough paused and looked out the window. The sun was lowering on the horizon, “You should get going with Cormac, and Gwen, too, if I know my wife.” He smiled.

Liam agreed, and they both stood up.

“I heard about what you did on the path, with the fire and the stallion. If anything tries to get my daughter, use that little trick again.” He said and winked.

Liam was taken aback. He hadn’t known anyone besides Sitric was even vaguely aware of that strange moment. That strange moment where Liam felt himself touch something beyond. “How did you…?”

“Sitric told me,” Hugh said, “Sitric and I talk a lot - part of the job. Whatever that was, it’s impressive. I’ve read a lot of books as Keeper of the Well, and something like that hasn’t happened for a long time.”

“I don’t even know what I did,” Liam said, coloring.

“Well, even ignoring that, I know of very few boys in their fifteenth year who can keep their head when faced with Darkness. You did.” Hugh looked back out the window, “Sitric would be dead if you hadn’t, and regardless of why Sitric was picked as Keeper of the Walls, we don’t want him dead.”

Liam looked out the window. The sun was getting lower in the sky, so he really should be going. He smiled sadly. He knew why Hugh had been picked, at least. Hugh could talk to you like you were the only person he’d ever thought about.

***

“I’m going to buy a donkey,” Liam growled as he pushed against the wheelbarrow with his shoulder, trying to get the wheel out of a groove. Gwen was holding the torch so Cormac and Liam could deal with the wheelbarrow.

“Who from?” Cormac asked as he attempted to lift the front. The wheelbarrow was fuller than Liam had expected. In fact, going up the mountain was difficult in more ways than one.

“I don’t know. Somebody must have an extra donkey around here,” Liam said. Suddenly, Liam’s footing slid on some loose moss, and the heavy wheelbarrow slipped.

Like an angry bull, it threw both Liam and Cormac to the ground. Its contents spilled onto the hill, some of it rolling off the path and into the forest and boulders.

“Or maybe, you shouldn’t have waited two months to resupply,” Gwen said as she stopped the Lastrios barrel before it could roll all the way back down the hill.

Cormac stood up and wiped his hands off on his pants. He surveyed the spillage and then started picking it up. Cormac wasn’t a man to cry over a spilled wheelbarrow. “So you’re Grandpa’s really completely back? Like he’s not even a little… strange?

“His mind is now sharp as a blade. Though he’s definitely strange,” Liam said as he set the wheelbarrow back on its legs.

“I would hope that the other Keeper’s already know about him and the Shadow,” Gwen said, placing the barrel back in the wheelbarrow.

Liam nodded, picking up a large wrapped leg of dried meat. “Yeah, I delivered a letter from him to them, so they know everything you do. Though I have no idea how they would prepare or do anything about it.”

“What even is the shadow?” Cormac asked. The shadow, that’s what they had taken to calling the coming thing that would put out the light.

Liam stopped and leaned on the wheelbarrow with a shrug. “You think Grandpa told me? I barely even know how he’s talking. He just yelled at me a bit for being a slob and said the shadow was bad. All I know is that it will put the lighthouse out and that it’s coming.”

“I bet it will be the Austermen,” Cormac said darkly. He slammed a heavy bag of flour into the wheelbarrow. “I bet they’ll come in their evil ships, attack the lighthouse, break down the door and steal the light.”

Gwen frowned thoughtfully. “Even the Austermen know that taking the light wouldn’t do them any good. If this prophecy is anything like the ones in the old stories and legends, then your Grandpa probably doesn’t know much either. Statements about the future are normally vague, regardless of their source.”

The wind whistled through the trees, making all of their noses cold. Cormac glanced around nervously and then up at the clouds rolling through the sky.

“You’re sure your grandpa made that storm go away?” He asked, looking up at the clouds. “I wouldn’t want it coming back while me and Gwen are trying to return to the village.”

“I think so, he said the words, and poof, the storm left. And anyway, that storm was weird, to begin with. I think we’d see it coming back.”

Gwen nodded. “Yeah, it was a strange one, and it left quickly. But the clouds were still there, even after the wind and rain stopped. Did he command it to go away or just stop?” Gwen said.

Liam thought about it as he placed the candles back in, “Once again, I don’t really know, but I think it’s kinda like those old stories. Each of the clouds is more than a cloud. It has a spirit like us. They all do, the rivers, and the trees, and the rocks, and the mountains, and the winds. When the Stars spoke them into existence, they were all awake like us, but then the stars put them asleep, so they don’t talk and do as much as they used to. I think some of them are more asleep than others, though, I don’t know, but that’s how Arwen’s stories make it seem.

“The storm must have been awake. Maybe it never fell asleep, or someone else woke it up. But anyway, Grandpa told it to leave. I know he did that. I understood him somehow. I understood those words more than I’ve ever understood any words in my entire life. Since he used that Old Tongue, it had to listen, so it left. But it left, not all of the clouds it brought with it, just whatever storm was at the center, making everything else angry and stormy.” Liam finished, placing another thing inside the wheelbarrow.

“Interesting,” Gwen said. “I’ll have to ask you more as your apprenticeship goes on.”

“There’s some stuff that rolled all the way down there,” Cormac said, pointing nervously down the hill and into the woods.

“I’ll get it,” Liam volunteered. He liked opportunities to go off the path. He took Gwen’s torch and ran down the hill. The sounds of the other two talking grew more distant with each item gathered.

The last item was on the edge of a large boulder that stuck out into the forest proper. Liam knelt on the boulder and leaned down, reaching for the item.

But then, he felt like he was being watched. His skin pricked, and he sensed something large on the edge of his vision, deeper in the forest. Liam looked up quickly, his blood filling with energy as he prepared to face another creature of Darkness.

For a moment, in the patchy light under the tree branches, his eyes could have mistaken the shape for the stallion, but his heart couldn’t have. The stallion had breathed fear into his chest and longing into his mind, but this thing was just quiet and peaceful.

A large stag stood maybe twenty paces away, it had more hair than the stallion, and it was a golden brown color. Around its neck and down its chest, the hair was thicker and looked soft but also solid, like it might be able to stop an arrow. Its horns weren’t nearly as large as the stallions had been, coming up into four points. It was watching him with its forest brown eyes. The eyes were not threatening or scared, merely observing. Almost human in their curiosity.

Liam watched it too. The hunters that came out in the summer spent days tracking to get a chance like this, but this animal didn’t seem concerned.

It was a beautiful animal, wild and unclaimed by The Beast. Though it was quiet and almost gentle at that moment, it was powerful. Its power was older than the organizations of man, older than The Beast, so it did not have to bow to either.

“Liam?” Cormac shouted.

Liam looked back at his cousin, who was looking after him, searching the brush with his eyes. “Sorry, I’ll be back in a second!” Liam shouted back. He turned back to look at the stag, only to see its bounding legs disappearing through the trees.

Liam sighed and climbed back up the hill, feeling a strange sense that he had forgotten something interesting when the stag left. 

*

Questions:

1. Do the conversation in this chapter help organize what we've experienced so far?

2. Is Hughs's argument compelling or persuasive?

3. Do the contrasting ways that Gwen and Cormac communicate with their parents tell you anything about them or their parents?

Part four of chapter eight: https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/work/MaybeAnd...